The Attacks On Your Kids’ Rights to a Free Appropriate Public Education ft. Attorney Laura Heneghan

We're taking a system that is struggling to be effective now, and we're removing resources from it, which can only result in a worse system. It got me diagnosed when I was in third grade, and it was the most relieving day of my life, because I finally had, like, kind of a place to hang my hat and say, see, I told you, I'm not lazy, definitely not stupid. I just learned differently, like, that's totally okay.

We were dyslexics, we were often, you know, just set up for failure, because, you know, we were given books and tasks that really are not appropriate for the level that we were at. So, how do you expect anyone to be open to learning, when their entire relationship with reading, with learning, is physical pain? Wish I had understood when I was younger that the fact that my brain worked differently than people meant that I would be good at things in ways that other kids were not going to be good at.

I just assumed, I can't be dyslexic, because letters don't jump up and down for me. Dyslexia is not a disorder. It is not a disease. Once you sort of own it and embrace it, then you can have the power to deal with it. It's sort of empowering and also enriching to the whole community. To those who don't understand what dyslexia is, that it's not a negative, it's not a problem, it's, like we keep saying, superpower.

All right. Hey, everyone, we're Nick and Sonja, and this is Dyslexia Journey, and we have a very important episode today. We want to talk about the policy changes and legal challenges going on in the United States, because many of them will affect our dyslexic kids. And just a disclaimer, you know, we know that, you know, parents across the political spectrum want the best for their kids with learning disabilities. So we're not trying to take a political stance here at all.

We just want to talk about the specifics of all of these policy and legal challenges so that you can be really informed about how it may impact our dyslexic kids. So, I'll hand it over to you to introduce our guests. Yeah, today we have two special guests.

So first we have Laura Hennigan, who is returning to Dyslexia Journey. This is her second time on the show. So I will read a short bio about her. Attorney Laura Hennigan proudly practices solely in the area of special education, representing children and adolescents with disabilities who are not receiving appropriate services from their public school district. She began practicing in this area after experiencing this process as the parent of a child with disabilities, including a son with dyslexia.

She brings this experience, her passion, and her unique collaborative abilities to her clients to change their outcomes for the better. And also today, first time on the show, we have Janice Toth, who is a legal assistant in Laura's office. Laura and Janice, welcome to Dyslexia Journey. Thank you very much. Happy to be here again. Thank you. And we are going to be using our notes a little more than we usually do on this show, simply because we want to be very precise, you know, when we're talking about all of this.

So, I'm going to go ahead and do that right now as we start into the first area that we want to talk about, which is diversity, equity, and inclusion. So, we often think about DEI as related to things like race, gender, and sexual orientation. But we also, you know, on the show, we talk about equity and inclusion all the time. So, I'd like to hear, you know, as DEI is being discouraged and not right banned, particularly with that January 29th federal executive order.

So, what does that mean for disability information specifically in distinctions? Has that sort of been included? And how does that, the overall pushback against DEI, how can that affect our kids with learning disabilities? Sure. Thank you. So, I have invited Janice here because she has some background in these issues and some higher education recently. So, I'm going to actually let her take this and maybe she can just give you a little bit of her background as to why, you know, she's capable of discussing this topic.

Yeah. So, I recently graduated with a Master's of Science in Criminal Justice with certificates in Title IX and Civil Rights Investigations. So, that's kind of my focus area. Also, apologies for the dogs in the background. But I'm hoping that they'll stay quiet for the rest of this. But I also have a background in higher education. Before coming to work with Laura, I worked in higher education for a couple of years. So, I was recently in that environment before transitioning into the legal field.

So, that's sort of my area of kind of like expertise and experience. But when it comes to DEI, especially in my experience, a lot of the efforts that are created within DEI is to create a more equitable system or educational setting for all students. So, that can include students with disabilities and often does include students with disabilities. And then we also often see students with disabilities whose identities intersect with other areas of identity, such as race, class, gender, national origin.

And so, I think that it can impact students with disabilities, especially within these executive orders, specifically when we're looking at recent efforts that involve creating a more inclusive environment for students. And in setting up classrooms where students with disabilities are with other students who do not have disabilities, we could see, because that language includes diversity, equity, and inclusion, the exclusion of inclusivity for students with disabilities. So, the executive orders don't specifically clarify exactly what identities they're focusing on, but instead, they're more of a generalized elimination of DEI efforts, which, again, can include students with disabilities.

So, I think it's sort of, it can create a negative impact for those students, and especially for the most vulnerable students who are, like, marginalized, which includes students with disabilities and who have intersecting identities. And I think it's important to note that executive orders do not have a legal basis. They represent the current administration's policies, no matter who the administration is. They're meant, you know, currently, they're kind of meant to intimidate and leverage some power.

But in general, the next administration comes in and revokes previous executive orders and puts forth their own executive orders. And since schools are largely the domain of states, these executive orders have no real legal basis in schools and currently are meant to intimidate to an extent. So, the laws are interpreted by the courts, and the Supreme Court has previously held that DEI efforts are, in fact, permissible. So, and there are many cases being fought that I'm sure we're going to kind of talk about a little bit later.

So, I just wanted to clarify what an executive order, you know, really has the capability of doing currently. Yeah. So, I think that that's super, super insightful to hear. I wonder, I mean, we've seen reactions in the news from companies and some universities kind of taking action in response to this executive order. What's your sense of how public schools, like elementary and high school level, are reacting to this? Or are they kind of just waiting and seeing?

So, a lot of it probably depends on where you are. Because some states and some districts may have some of these policies in place already. Some may be more supportive of these policies than others. So, I think they may be reacting to what their inclination would be in the first place, right? There was very recently a letter that went out last Thursday from the Department of Education that stated it was a follow-up to a previous order demanding compliance with a Dear Colleague letter that banned all DEI if school districts wanted to receive federal funds.

And school districts, so it went to the head of the Department of Education for the states. And then it, of course, filtered down into the states. And they were given 10 days to issue certifications of compliance. So, to sign something that says, we are in compliance with all DEI, you know, laws, regulations, and everything. And there was pushback in some states. New York immediately pushed back and said, we are in compliance with all DEI laws.

Because the laws haven't changed. What they kind of are seeking out of those laws is what has changed. The focus was always equity. But where the equity comes from has kind of changed a little bit, right? So, other states just haven't responded yet. They're looking at their policies. And, again, it's a little bit of an intimidation factor with the threat of money hanging over these districts. We're going to remove your federal funding if you don't.

The only way to fight this is to fight it out in court, which a lot of us know takes a long time. So, the initial reaction of some states and some districts is to comply. And I think that's the intent of it, right? To put enough fear out that you get a compliance and that kind of meets your narrative. But it's not necessarily legally what districts should or have to be doing right now.

So, in these areas where some districts might kind of just comply, as you said, do you, I know it's hard to predict, like, what this would actually look like on the ground for our special education kids.

So, I think, as Janice mentioned, that DEI is really about inclusivity, right? And a lot of our kids with disabilities, like dyslexia, cross over into a lot of these different places. So, it is hard to say how it's going to look because it might look very different depending, again, on where you live and how your administrators in the building interpret it, how your board of education interprets it. And you go to your state level.

So, it could mean a – one of the biggest things I think that's happened is that this threat of federal money or actually freezing some of the federal money has resulted in staffing issues and will only continue to do so. And I think that's an area that we're really going to see some vulnerability amongst our most vulnerable kids, right? We're going to have class sizes have to get bigger. We're going to have less trained teachers.

So, it's really – it's almost incomprehensible how big the effect can be because it really depends on how some of these court cases fall out and how districts and states are going to react to these individual orders. Yeah. So, basically, there's a lot of uncertainty, it sounds like. It's kind of the – Very much so. The dominant – Yeah, I mean, I wish I had more definitive answers for you. Yeah, no, but – but, yeah, well, yeah, we can see some of the possibilities for directions if you go.

So, that's helpful to hear. Yeah. Okay, let's – let's move on. And so, there's so many changes going on right now, particularly at the federal level, as far as we know, at least. And I'm wondering if you have a particular area or policy change that you think is the most worrisome that you'd want to start off the next section with. So, I think that one important thing to note is that the narrative that's happening is the whole purpose is to give education back to the states, right?

That's a big narrative out there. And to be clear, the states and local governments have always had control of education. The U.S. Constitution does not mention education. The word is not in there. And the Tenth Amendment gives power to the states when a power is not delegated to the federal government. So, it's always been delegated to states. States have always had decision-making in things like curriculum, teacher training standards, graduation requirements, creating and maintaining the public school systems.

So, the federal government provides funding to support these school districts and can withhold that funding if the states don't meet with their guidelines. So, one of the big roles of the federal government is oversight to ensure equal access to education for all students, including students with disabilities, and to address discrimination. So, some of the most worrisome issues, I think that while closing the Department of Education, which is kind of on the table, would likely be impossible without congressional action.

The administration has initiated significant workforce reductions in the Department of Education, and that impacts these investigations into discrimination complaints, enforcement of law, and access to educational resources and support. So, there have been, there was over 12,000 pending investigations into civil rights violations relating to schools, and about half of those relate to disability issues. And cutting the staff by half results in delays in a process that was not great to begin with, and eliminating oversight by the federal government.

Another tremendous area that I really have concern about is there's over $600 million in teacher training programs that have been defunded. We were already countrywide in a shortage of educators, especially in special education, and then a lot of your support areas, schools, psychologists, and therapists, and occupational therapy, and those supporting roles. And, you know, this could lead states to allowing lower standards for teacher qualifications to fill positions, larger classroom sizes, and overall, you know, really just less resources for students who need them.

There's a lot of threat to cut federal funding for Title I schools, which are low-income areas, and there's a disproportionate number of students with greater needs in these areas, disabilities, and other things. And this also affects programs like school lunch, and I think this is where we have to kind of think about the ramifications, right? So any student that is not getting a healthy meal, and some of these kids, this is their only healthy meal they may be getting in a day.

It's affecting their learning, their ability to engage when they don't have the proper nutrition. And then the Department of Education rescinded recently 72 guidance documents for the Office of Special Education Programs, OSEP, which is what we call it, and Rehabilitation Services Administration, which outlined the rights of students with disabilities under IDEA, and the Rehabilitation Act. The Rehabilitation Act is where 504 plans come from. It's a section under that act. And I think this leads to kind of the larger narrative that published information from federal agencies like the Department of Education are no longer reliable representations of the policy and the law.

Pages are being deleted, pages are being deleted, documents are being removed, and this is not based in law. So the accuracy of information that's floating out there is maybe questionable. So those are kind of my top, you know, big areas of concern right now. Yeah. Well, just to pull out one thing from that as a distinction. So with the first part of what you were talking about with the funding and the cutting staff,

how do you, do you see the, so the sort of the other piece of this, which is closing the Department of Education overall as being the intention, you know, it would have to pass Congress, as you said, but let's say that did happen and there's some moving of some agencies to other agencies and that kind of thing. Like, how do you see that specific aspect of it? So the IDEA, which is the Individuals with Disabilities Act, is the primary federal law that covers our kids with disabilities.

And that ensures that they are provided a free appropriate public education, called a FAPE, you might hear that, and serves the individual needs of each student. So for our kids with dyslexia, this is where their Individualized Education Program comes from. And this law outlines the rights of parents and the student and the responsibilities of the school district. So the IDEA as a federal law cannot be changed or eliminated without an approved act of Congress.

It currently falls under the responsibility of the Department of Education. But as you mentioned, there's some intent to potentially move that. So the law itself, even if the department were to go away, the law does not go away. And I think it's important to know that some states have codified or formally written the law into state law. And it's in some areas very much in alignment with the federal IDEA. So states in general can include provisions that go beyond the federal law, and some states have done so.

So, for example, in the federal IDEA, if a school district needs to comply with something within 45 days, the state law can be more restrictive. It can require compliance in 30 days. It can't expand and allow it within 60 days, but it can make it more. So I think we've got to look at some of our state education laws and see if the protections outside the federal law exist. And but even with this, we're still the federal government provides an oversight function that could potentially disappear or be significantly diluted if their objectives are obtained.

Does that make sense? So is it safe to generalize this as stating that the law itself is probably not in danger, but the oversight and the enforcement is in danger? Yes, that's absolutely accurate. Okay. And the oversight might move to some of these other, you know, departments that they're talking about. And in March, the president announced plans to dismantle and move the IDEA to the Department of Health and Human Services. That causes me and people like me a lot of concern because this would potentially cause education to be looked at through a medical lens, which is not appropriate.

They're two separate things. And HHS, the Health and Human Services, does not have the expertise or knowledge in education or disabilities to properly implement the IDEA. The law itself is grounded in education and HHS has no familiarity with the laws, the implementation, the oversight or the remedies like due process. There's no oversight organization in HHS like OSEP that we just talked about. And, you know, I would say that our medical and health systems are not operating currently to meet many needs of our citizens.

Right. And now we're going to add responsibility after cutting staff by 50 percent. And this could overwhelm not only the educational system, but potentially the medical system. And education requires deep understanding and expertise in pedagogy, curriculum development, instructional supports, how public school systems function. And these are areas that the Department of Education has built decades of experience and capacity for that do not exist in other places. Right. So what what can you give us some maybe concrete examples of like what harm this could have on like a specific kid.

In public schools. So it all comes down to money and oversight are kind of the two big things. So we as a tool, as a special education attorney, one tool I have currently is I can file a complaint at a federal level with the Office of Civil Rights, OCR, for discrimination. And that discrimination can be based on a disability. So I have a student in school who is not receiving the services that they are entitled to under the law.

And the federal government has in place these complaints where it can be investigated by the Office of Civil Rights and they come back with ways that this can be resolved. So it may be that the school or teachers require additional training. It may be that the student has to receive some things. And without the existence of OCR, those go away. So there's there's an additional protection level, first of all, which also results in school districts compliance because they have this federal oversight kind of hanging over them.

If that goes away and the state and the school districts become solely responsible for themselves, I fear that there's going to be even less protections for students with disabilities. The other piece for the funding piece. So the federal government provides funding to schools. Some districts in our country receive zero dollars, depending on their need. Some districts receive up to 75 percent of what they need to service their students from the federal government.

So depending on where you fall within that, if those funds go away, you have a complete risk. Look at the 75 percent, right? You'd have a reduction in teachers, resources, supplies, buildings to everything that a student is potentially supplied, whether they have a disability or not, could potentially be going away. So I think that when we're looking at any specific student who is receiving services for dyslexia, you may no longer have teachers who are qualified to remediate.

You may have no facilities in order to provide that. You may lose your support services. A lot of kids with dyslexia develop anxiety and have emotionality and self-esteem issues. And that can be addressed currently in many school districts by support staff. And the fear of that going away is another kind of compounding problem. Yeah. So just just to be clear, it's not it's not necessarily going to be any like malintent on the behalf of the teachers of the administration or the school.

It's it's really just going to be a result of schools being overloaded and underfunded. And they're just not physically able to to provide. I mean, in the most part, I mean, obviously, there are situations where they're. Yeah, I never blame the, you know, the boots on the ground teachers for these things. I think it when when resources go away, either staff has to go away or you've got to you've got to fill it another way.

So states may have to increase property taxes and other things to fill this void if we lose federal funds. So in districts that use a lot of federal funds, you're going to see more repercussions because it is absolutely not the fault of the teachers or the administrators. But if they don't have budgetary money to pay people to be providing in these positions, those people aren't going to be there. Yeah. And then without the kind of threat of enforcement at the federal level, it's just kind of easier to let those things go, I guess.

Right. And I mean, we all on this podcast exist because kids are not necessarily getting what they need currently. So we're taking a system that is struggling to be effective now and we're removing resources from it, which can only result in a worse system.

We're going to talk as we get towards the end, we're going to talk about the legal challenges and what can be done. And so but I'm curious, you know, as we wrap up the federal level discussion here, is there anything else that we haven't covered that we might have missed along the way that you want to bring up? Either of you or and or any points you want to make about them, including if there's anything positive, anything that doesn't worry you that people are worried about that they shouldn't be.

I don't know if that exists or not, but you can let us know. Janice, why don't you talk a little bit about the Office of Civil Rights OCR, just so we make sure people understand what they do? Yeah. So the Department of Education has the Office of Civil Rights that works with within them in order to enforce civil rights law and investigate civil rights complaints and discrimination complaints. At this moment in time, however, the Office of Civil Rights has stopped investigating discrimination claims, as Laura stated.

So it's kind of leaving families in the dark with current claims and also allowing for this discrimination to perpetuate in the education system. And that really has happened with the significant closure of major offices of the Office of Civil Rights. I know ours local to us, it was in Boston, and that one was closed indefinitely. There's also the firing of hundreds of federal workers within the Office of Civil Rights as well.

So again, that's creating a shortage of resources available to even continue investigating or responding or providing updates to these claims. And as Laura stated previously, this was never really a perfect system. So now with that lack of resources and just completely stopping the investigations process itself, it's really causing much stress for families and parents and students who are kind of being left behind and in the dark regarding these claims. The Office of Civil Rights also issues dear colleagues' letters as well as policies and procedures that are recommended to school districts as well.

So, you know, I think, too, with its closing, there have been, as we will probably get into, legal action that is being taken place, which is kind of, I guess, a positive thing, you could say. There are community organizations that are stepping up to represent these students and sort of try to push these claims forward and these investigations forward to ensure that these students are receiving an equitable education. So I think, while this is an unfortunate time for the Office of Civil Rights to be closing, of course, and sort of stopping these investigations, we are seeing legal action being taken place and community members that are kind of stepping up for these students.

So I think that that's an important thing to point out as well. Yeah, so just to make sure I understand this correctly, so the Office of Civil Rights has completely stopped investigating claims. So that means, for everyone, so someone who is dyslexic and not getting the education that they are entitled to, there's, like, no remedy right now with the federal government. Right. So I think that there's, yeah, so families and students have not received any sort of responses.

They've kind of halted their investigations currently. So there's the, I think it was a 12,000 number that's left outstanding and half of those being disability cases. So I think it involves students with disabilities. The Office of Civil Rights also investigates discrimination claims for students based on race, gender, national origin. So it could also include, again, vulnerable students and marginalized students, in addition to students with disabilities. So I think it's just kind of leaving our most vulnerable students in the dark.

And their families haven't really received any updates regarding these claims. It was a slow process even before this happened. So now that they've been sort of halted and slowed down, it's even kind of building up even more. And I don't know that they're also accepting many new claims of discrimination. So I don't think that they're even really looking into newer claims currently. And so these issues are just kind of piling up without a real resolution.

And I think, too, that the focus moving forward is currently different. It's, again, looking at these DEI issues through a different frame of what it previously had been looked at. And of the half of the employees that were let go from OCR, a large proportion of those were the attorneys who were conducting the investigations and looking into these things. So there really is very little recourse for families right now pursuing, as a federal government, this oversight role.

We still have our other options, right? Due process, which is an IDEA right of parents, because, again, the law itself is not gone or going away. So you still have the right to state complaints and due process and mediation and those different things that we had before and we have now. And those processes are more within the state. So those haven't really changed. Anything else that you'd like to add from the federal level?

Well, you kind of asked about, you know, are any changes positive? And so the Department of Education was created by Congress in 1979 under President Carter. So to me, that's not that long ago, right, based on my age. If I had to look for a positive, it may be that states and local school districts spend a lot of time and resources reporting for federal purposes. So remember, to get the federal funding, which can be withheld for noncompliance, they have to regularly show proof of compliance, which means a lot of time and a lot of paperwork.

So no longer having to provide that to the federal government may potentially allow more time to focus on instructional practices and less oversight. If you talk to any special education teacher, they tell you one of the things that really bogs them down is the paperwork, right? They wish they could spend more time with the students. So limiting some of that paperwork could have a positive result. That said, critics strongly argue that the Department of Education plays a vital role in ensuring the equity, the civil rights and the access to quality education, especially for underserved populations.

So I think whether these positives are beneficial depends heavily on the values and the priorities you place on national standards versus local control. Some states are more invested in protecting the rights currently protected by the federal government. And I fear other states would eliminate many of the protections they are forced to comply with if they weren't held to this standard. Because it is complex, right? There's a lot of different... Very complex, yes.

But of course, if there's also... I was thinking of that special education teacher. If there's no funding and that special education teacher is cut, then they can't take advantage of having no form. So yeah, it all interplays so much that it's hard to tease things out from each other like that. Yeah. But thank you for that. Well, maybe that's a good segue to the state level. I did want to... I don't know if this is a good segue, but we wanted to talk a little bit about block grants and...

Yes, please. Right. And voucher programs, because that's another big narrative out there. So if you just stay in the federal for a moment. So I wanted to make sure that people understand what we're talking about. So block grants are a set amount of money allocated to state or local governments. And they provide little oversight and a lot of flexibility, which some see is a benefit. Here's your pool of money and you can decide what you want to do with it, right?

For education, this would mean fewer requirements as to how the funds are allocated. So, and since it's a fixed amount, it can't respond to changes in need. So you get an increased student population or your special education needs are suddenly increasing. State and local governments would allocate these funds as they see fit. And this can mean away from programs to support disabilities. These allocations to schools aren't constant and the state can reallocate them away from the schools.

So block grants distribute funds based on a fixed formula without taking into account varying needs like poverty rates, special education rates, rural areas versus urban areas. So districts will, with widely varying needs, may receive the same amount of funding resulting in disparities. So wealthy areas can, can kind of fill these with local property taxes, donations, poor districts can't do that. So basically the funding is, is currently specifically designated for students with disabilities.

When they're getting it through the IDEA, that, that money has to go to students with disabilities. Block grants means this is no longer a guarantee that students in that area of need will receive this money. Now, school voucher programs, also a hot topic and a goal of, of the current administration and voucher programs use public funds to give parents money to enroll their children in private school. So this means that these funds will not go to public schools, which still have to exist because they're governed by state laws.

The private schools often don't accept children with disabilities. So money previously dedicated to support students with disabilities will be gone and the services won't be available. Private schools also don't have the requirements to meet academic standards. They don't have financial transparency, transparency like your public school district board meetings. They would be receiving taxpayer money with no assurance as to the quality of the education and voucher programs don't typically cover full tuition.

So there's still a disparity between high income and low income families, whoever can, you know, support the difference in that low income families will have alternatives, but underfunded public schools. And the percentage of students with disabilities will likely increase because we're going to have the wealthier families moving their kids to the private schools and what's left are underfunded public schools with a higher percentage of kids with issues, right? Well, the private schools have no requirements for certified teachers, the curriculum standards.

And just as an example, Arizona implemented a universal voucher program. The state budget had a significant shortfall as the program costs exceeded the expectations and led to cuts in other state programs. Many people that took the vouchers already had kids in private schools, so you're not actually giving people options. You're just feeding money to people who already were in the private school arena. And then there were a lot of investigations of illegal payments, false applications, misappropriation of funds, and the quality of education in the public schools significantly suffered.

So, if you can tell, I am not for block grants or voucher programs, but for, I think, a lot of very evident, evidentiary reasons, right? Yeah, just to, I guess, emphasize the point that when the quality of education falls in general, or there's less money available in general, that impacts the most vulnerable students the most, such as those with special needs. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That was important to cover as well.

It was. Yeah. Anything else? Yeah. Anything else from the federal? From the federal? Oh, I guess there is one. Well, there's this lawsuit I wanted to ask you about, the Texas VBETSERA. We actually talked about that on our show last month. I haven't seen any news about that lately. Yeah. So, it's kind of quiet right now. For those who don't know, back in September 24, so before the new administration came into, came into place.

17 states filed a case, and this case challenges the constitutionality of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, which is where our 504 protections and plans come from. This law reaches beyond school and protects all people with disabilities from discrimination in federally funded programs. So, this is not just a student with disabilities school. This is a anybody with disabilities program. And this could affect access to health care, education, housing. The suit specifically targets provisions recognizing gender dysphoria as a potential qualifying disability, meaning gender dysphoria would be then defined as a disability under this and protect those people that are claiming that as a disability.

Gender dysphoria is a term used to describe when somebody has a sense of unease between their biological sex and their gender identity. The suit seeks to dismantle the law in totality. So, it's not just focused on this gender dysphoria definition. It is seeking to get rid of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act completely. As of February 2025, the case is on hold. Before that, some of the attorneys general made statements about their intent to withdraw or that it wasn't their intent to get rid of the entire law.

But nobody thus far has withdrawn. But the case is currently on pause. Okay. That's not something that we should be super worried about right now? Not right now. I think we have got plenty of other places to focus on our concern. So, yeah, that's going on in a state. Another large-scale suit in a state.

There's not a lot of other things going on in states that would have an effect on us kind of nationally. In March, a public school district in Massachusetts did file a suit challenging the reduction of the Department of Education workforce without an act of Congress. So, that's kind of another interesting one to watch and see how that comes forth.

So, it's probably a good time to switch over, and as we have remaining with you, we want to respect your time, to some of the lawsuits that are going on. I know COPA has a lawsuit, for example, and the NCYL. Maybe you could tell us just a little bit about what those are and, like, what's going on with the lawsuits. So, the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates and the National Center for Youth Law filed a joint federal lawsuit against the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights regarding its decision to stop investigating these civil rights complaints that we talked about.

It calls for OCR to continue investigating civil rights complaints as required by law and provide updates to families regarding the complaints. There isn't a lot of updates on it. Unfortunately, these things take time, right?

There was also, on March 21st, an Attorney General filed suit against the administration to block the dismantling of the Department of Education and firing 50% of the people rendering it incapable of its legally required functions. There are currently about 175 lawsuits against the administration, but they're all moving a little bit slowly because they've got to work their way through the court system. And I think that, you know, the Texas one, I don't think, needs a lot of focus right now because it paused prior to the change in administration.

I think that COPPA and the NCYL is an interesting one to follow. And these are all, you know, public records, but nothing, there's no current developments really in any of these. Okay. And there was one case that the Supreme Court just, I think, said that the claimants, I don't know if that's the right word, didn't have standing. But that was maybe not related to education. Yeah, they are ruling.

It's interesting because the conservative, I'm trying to say this politically correct, right? We've got more conservative judges right now that support a lot of the policies of the administration. So it's going to be interesting to see the effect of going through the system because we have some things that are being won in the lower courts that are then not being upheld. There was just a case decided yesterday regarding some of the immigration pieces that it had positives and negatives.

So I think, like anything, when we see these results, we have to understand the outcomes because these are really complicated measures, right? And some of it may be that the court is sending things back to be looked at again. It doesn't necessarily mean there's a decision. So I think one of the kind of running narratives here is verified information because the totality of information is overwhelming in any of these areas that people have concern of, right?

So I think getting your information from a really reliable source is really important right now.

So what can we and our audience do about any of this right now? Yeah, I think that parents, advocates, community members, you're encouraged to be involved with organizations that follow what your beliefs are, right? So follow, if you're interested in students with disabilities and their rights, organizations like the ACLU, COPA, which we mentioned, the NYCL, which we mentioned, Lambda Legal, if you're interested in a lot of these DEI initiatives. And these are all organizations that are filing lawsuits that are working to uphold the rights of students with disabilities and those currently threatened by the changes in the administration.

And a lot of them offer parent memberships for free or newsletters or other things that can kind of keep you knowledgeable about what's going on. I think that there are, you can actually go on and see like a court case tracker and you can follow all of these lawsuits that are going on if you so choose to. I'm a lawyer, so I find that entertaining, right? If the DOE, the Department of Education is dismantled, or even if it is rendered ineffective, state and local governments will have considerable power of decision-making, implementation, and now oversight, right?

Some states are going to fare better than others with this. And I think as parents and advocates, you need to make your voice heard to your state representatives, your local school boards, and your leaders. And I think you need to know that simply because something is said or documented, even in an executive order, doesn't make it true or legal. And there are very, very, very smart people fighting these battles for our vulnerable kids with disabilities.

So I think that we need to speak up where we can and let our opinions be known, stay in the know of what's happening, but also know that there are others out there that we are relying on that are very capable of kind of carrying through on these things. And also you, in terms of staying informed, you are writing a very excellent newsletter that I think our audience... Thank you, yes. We're trying to keep our clients and friends kind of in the know and take all of the overwhelming information and put it in a kind of summarized format.

So we are issuing newsletters. Janice has been doing a really fantastic job with synthesizing a lot of this information into digestible amounts. So if anyone would like to receive the newsletter, you can email her and ask to be added to our mailing list. Janice, why don't you give your email? Yeah, my email is Janice, that's J-A-N-Y-C-E at S-P-E-D dot E-S-Q. So you can go ahead and email me there and we can add you to our mailing list for our newsletter.

I think like Laura stated, it's important to emphasize that there's a lot of influx of information incoming. It's important to remain hopeful and know that we have a lot of community members that are working to represent and uphold the civil rights of our students with disabilities. And we're more than willing to keep you guys informed and also help you and help answer any questions that you may be concerned about. So I think it's just important to remain hopeful at this time and lean into those resources and those community organizations just to keep, you know, hope that, you know, we'll maintain the civil rights for our students.

And I think, too, if you're if you are concerned, as most of us are, you've got to look at your state laws and regulations and see if your state and your school policies have protections that are mirrored by the federal law in the event that the federal law is having issues. Right. And you you can also there's there's there's also places you can go and see how much money from the federal government your district is currently receiving.

And that will kind of give you an idea of the impact of this going away. Remember, there's there's two big pieces, right? The funding and the oversight. If the oversight goes away, there are a lot of concerns. If the funding goes away, there's there's kind of direct correlation to the services that are going to be provided to your child in your district. So you can look and see. And some districts may be getting very few, very little federal funds and therefore not much in terms of resources.

Others may be getting significant federal funds and there could be a lot of change. Yes, that's important. So this has all been so wonderful. We really appreciate you sharing all of this, helping us make clarify it, pointing out, you know, what we should be aware of. It's just wonderful. So we really appreciate you being here. Any any if you have any last comments, share them now. Otherwise, we'll definitely put that email, you know, for the mailing list.

And no, I appreciate being here. And I think it's it's a time of concern, which we all have. I think that, like I said, there's a lot of people and organizations that are working on this and that it's going to take time. And I think that's that's difficult when you've got a child that has disabilities and you're, you know, putting a lot of energy into that and you have to wait for something.

It's it's frustrating. It's difficult. So I really encourage people self-care. I think that's a really big thing right now, too, that you need to really focus. And I think that there are things going on in so many different areas that I did hear really good advice, which was kind of kind of like pick your issue and focus there. Because if you if you look to too many, it's very overwhelming right now.

So and this is a big one. If you've got a child with disabilities, that is enough of an area to really focus on. So I and I think if if you need somebody like me in your state, COPA does have a directory, copaa.org to talk to or see if they are issuing newsletters. You know, a lot of us are doing the same kind of work, really trying to keep people knowledgeable about what's happening.

Well, thank you so much for all the work you do. And we really appreciate, again, you being here. Oh, you're very welcome. Thank you for having me back. Thank you for having us.